Agilent Technologies and Imperial College London in the UK have signed a strategic scientific collaboration agreement that brings together Agilent’s leading analytical technologies with Imperial’s outstanding researchers. Under the agreement, Agilent will support Imperial with a broad range of instruments to equip a new Agilent-sponsored Measurement Suite.

The Agilent Measurement Suite will be housed within Imperial’s Molecular Sciences Research Hub at the new White City Campus due to open later this year. Scientists at Imperial will use the state-of-the-art laboratory to extend their world-renowned interdisciplinary research, including fundamental and translational research. Application areas that will benefit include clinical diagnostics, biopharmaceuticals, energy and chemicals, environmental science, food testing and agriculture, materials research, and proteomics. The suite will also serve as an Agilent instrument demonstration lab and showcase for customers to experience the company’s definitive workflow solutions.

“Imperial College London plays a very important role in advancing a deeper understanding of the world through their lab instruction and research,” said Mike McMullen, Agilent president and CEO. “We recognize the important contributions made by university scientific research to solve real-life challenges from finding new ways to fight cancer, to ensuring the purity of food, to solving major environmental issues. It is an honor for Agilent to support Imperial in building an advanced scientific measurement and analytical laboratory on their new White City Campus. We value our partnership and look forward to taking this important step together.”

“Imperial’s new partnership with Agilent is a significant development as we strengthen our industry collaborations,” said Alice Gast, Imperial’s president. “Agilent's best-in-field equipment in the Molecular Sciences Research Hub at White City will catalyze forefront multidisciplinary research on societal challenges from understanding disease on a molecular level to developing clean sources of energy.”

The partnership between Imperial and Agilent is expected to drive further collaborative projects to the benefit of both partners, and to move cutting-edge research forward. This collaboration further underlines Agilent’s already extensive commitment in support of academia through its wide range of academic programs and growing network of Agilent Centers of Excellence.

Tony Cass, professor of chemical biology in the Department of Chemistry and Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial, has been appointed Director of the Agilent Measurement Suite. He will oversee the collaboration with an objective to develop and facilitate the translation of research, tools and technology from academia to industry.